NIH to Offer Free Health Care for People With Very Rare Diseases

The National Institutes of Health is seeking those patients - and those who qualify could get some free care at the government's top research hospital as scientists study why they're sick.

"These patients are to a certain extent abandoned by the medical profession because a brick wall has been hit," said Dr. William Gahl, who helped develop the NIH's new Undiagnosed Diseases Program. "We're trying to remove some of that."